Notes of TR's lecture

Todd spoke on the Beatles effect on the following things: hair, fashion, media, politics, drugs and religion.

Hair

Todd hated haircuts, even as a child.

The first thing he noticed about the Beatles was their hair.

He was rooting for the Beatles to be successful largely because of their hair and his affinity for long hair.

Todd had few goals as a young person but long hair was one of them.

Juergen Vollmer gave the Beatles their signature hair idea.

Todd got a haircut for HS at the insistence of his father; his parents did not even attend his HS graduation, he was pissed.

Fashion

Todd had to go to London once a year to buy his clothes, there was nowhere in the US to get clothes he wanted.

People often thought he was English due to the clothing he wore.

Granny Takes a Trip was where TR bought clothes.

Media

Todd talked about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus, what they were trying to say.

Politics

The Beatles greatly threatened the status quo.

Long hair meant harassment. Todd talked about how the police would haul longhairs to the station and make fun on them.

Drugs

The Beatles were a drug band from the start.

The Beatles openly smoked cigarettes and liked rum and coke.

Lennon first smoked pot when he met Bob Dylan.

Definitely believes Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is a LSD song.

In order to fully appreciate Sgt. Peppers it is said you must be on acid.

Todd has never listened to Sgt. Peppers on acid.

Close to the Edge by Yes was the first album he listened to on acid.

During this time the music shifted from the single to the album concept.

Religion

Keep it to yourself is the English way.

Talked about the Maharishi Yogi and how the Beatles were first fascinated and then saw him as a huckster.

Sexy Sadie was written about the Maharishi and made fun of him.

Todd was always very suspicious of the Yogi thing - he was very agnostic during this time.

Q&A session

Todd talked about Burton Cummings and how he licked the microphone on the All Starr tour.

On the All Starr tour there were the AA folks and the A folks.

Jimmy Page is one of Todd's least favorite guitar players.

Todd hates country music.

Paul McCartney has no sense of irony.

Todd knows Alice Cooper.

The movie Roadie was the source of the Deface the Music album. Todd was asked to produce the soundtrack by Alice. Also asked to do a Utopia song for it. Utopia wrote and played I Just Want To Touch You. Feedback was negative...sounded too much like the Beatles....so Todd said, hell, we will do a whole album like this, maybe we will get some attention from it.

Although the technology was available to record 24 tracks, Deface the Music only used 4 tracks to record to give it as close to a sound as possible to the Beatles.

Todd has dabbled in cover art. He lamented the end of the album and album art. CD is too small for this.

Todd's father was a draftsman and painter and was very skilled. Todd did not have a good relationship with his Dad until his later years.

Todd painted the cover of Meet the Beatles exactly except that he had blood coming out of Ringo's nose.

George Martin re-defined what a producer did with a record. Originally, they only concerned themselves with budget.

The Beatles changed a lot of stuff in the studio as they played all instruments.

Todd talked about publishing and writers credits.

I was so enamored with a lot of his stuff that I did not write it all down. But this captures the gist of it.

It was a fantastic night. Todd talked for over 2 hours and stayed afterwards until everything was signed and every photo taken. He is such a gifted, witty and gracious person. Thanks Todd! And thank you Gordon and IU for arranging for all of us to be with Professor Todd Rundgren.